Tech & Science
Technology and Science news from Boulder, Colorado
CU-BOULDER PROFESSOR WALEED ABDALATI NAMED CHIEF SCIENTIST AT NASA
Dec 13th
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden has selected University of Colorado at Boulder faculty member Waleed Abdalati to serve as the agency’s chief scientist effective Jan. 3 for a two-year appointment.
Abdalati, 46, is an associate professor in CU-Boulder’s geography department and a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Abdalati, who directs the Earth Science Observation Center at CIRES, will oversee and advocate for NASA science.
Abdalati’s research focuses on understanding changes in Earth’s ice cover and what they mean for life on our planet. Abdalati and his CIRES colleagues use satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques along with field observations and modeling to learn about ice sheets and high-latitude glaciers, their vulnerability to climate change and their contributions to sea-level rise.
“It is an honor for a research institution such as CIRES to have one of our own chosen as an elite in a national science agency,” said CIRES Director Konrad Steffen. “It’s especially helpful now given that the White House has strengthened NASA’s focus on Earth science research.”
“I’m very happy here and I hope to return from Washington, D.C., in a position to serve my CU-Boulder colleagues and students even more effectively,” said Abdalati, who will retain his faculty appointment at CU-Boulder. “But this is an opportunity I want to take advantage of because I so strongly believe in the importance of what NASA does for the nation, society and the world.”
In his new position, Abdalati will serve as chief adviser to Bolden on matters relating to agency science programs, strategic planning and the evaluation of NASA’s current science investments. Abdalati also will work with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and Budget.
The new position marks his return to NASA. During his first tenure at the space agency Abdalati served as the head of the Cryospheric Sciences Branch of NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md. He also managed the Cryospheric Sciences Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He returned to CU-Boulder from NASA more than two years ago.
“We are excited to have Waleed return to the agency during such a critical transition period,” Bolden said. “His experience, wide range of scientific knowledge and familiarity with NASA will greatly benefit the agency. He will be a true advocate for our many and diverse science research and exploration programs.”
Abdalati will continue advising his graduate students, returning a few days a month to Boulder from the Washington, D.C., area, where he will move with his family. “The administrator has told me that my university ties are very important to him, and he has been very supportive of my desire to actively maintain them throughout the assignment,” he said
Abdalati received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University in 1986, a Master of Science in aerospace engineering sciences from CU-Boulder in 1991 and a doctorate in CU-Boulder’s geography department in 1996. During this period he spent four years in Steffen’s laboratory.
Abdalati has received numerous awards for his research and service to NASA, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and two NASA Group Achievement Awards.
“I will be representing all of the science in the agency, ensuring that it is aligned with and fulfills the administration’s science objectives, and advocating for NASA science in the context of those broader government science agendas,” he said.
CU-BOULDER STUDENTS TO DEMONSTRATE INNOVATIONS AND INVENTIONS AT DEC. 4 ENGINEERING DESIGN EXPO
Dec 1st
From a portable device that calculates your ultraviolet exposure to a “recycling jukebox” that plays a song when you recycle a can, the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Engineering Design Expo on Saturday, Dec. 4, will feature a variety of innovations and inventions to delight the community.
More than 80 student projects will be demonstrated at the end-of-semester event. The Expo is free and open to the public from noon to 3:30 p.m. at the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory, located on the corner of Regent Drive and Colorado Avenue.
The semiannual demonstration of engineering projects will showcase the work of about 400 undergraduate students. Most of the students are enrolled in the popular First-Year Engineering Projects course, which allows students to practice real-world engineering design from the start of their college experience.
Working in teams throughout the fall semester to design solutions to an array of challenges, engineering students have developed various interactive video games that promote exercise, interactive 3-D puzzles for children with lights and sounds, water disinfection systems, assistive technology for people with disabilities, and much more.
Volunteers from industry, government and the community will serve as judges, rating each project on its originality, craftsmanship, as well as the students’ understanding of engineering principles, presentation and effectiveness. An awards ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. Members of the community can vote for their favorite project to win the coveted “People’s Choice” award.
Free parking is available across the street from the ITL Laboratory in lot 436. For more information, call 303-492-7222.
SOURCE: CU PRESS RELEASE
CU-BOULDER FACULTY MEMBER TO MAKE STELLAR OBSERVATIONS WITH AIRBORNE OBSERVATORY
Dec 1st
A University of Colorado at Boulder faculty member is one of two scientists who will use data gathered by a world-class telescope flying aboard a modified Boeing 747 to peer at a distant star-forming region during its inaugural science flight this week.
Known as the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, the jet was significantly modified in order to mount a 2.5-meter reflecting telescope in the rear fuselage, said Senior Research Associate Paul Harvey of CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, one of the scientists involved in the mission.
The jet will fly at 40,000 to 45,000 feet in altitude, putting it above more than 99 percent of the water vapor in the atmosphere — which blocks infrared light from reaching the ground — and will allow scientists to observe stellar targets in wavelengths of light that can’t be observed by ground-based telescopes, said Harvey.
The aircraft and telescope were successfully tested in the summer of 2009. SOFIA’s Faint Object InfraRed Camera, known as FORCAST, is a versatile camera that collects light from the visible, infrared and sub-millimeter portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, Harvey said.
Harvey will be observing and analyzing the distribution of dust and gas in a young, star-forming cluster known as Sharpless 140 that is roughly 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. One light-year is equal to about 6 trillion miles.
“Observing the birth of stars in our own galaxy is critical because planetary systems form at the same time that a central star is formed,” said Harvey. “In addition, some of the most luminous galaxies in the universe appear to be powered by extreme bursts of star formation.”
Harvey flew on several hundred flights of SOFIA’s predecessor, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, but will not be aboard the first science flight of SOFIA. The second set of observations on this week’s SOFIA science flight will be led by Mark Morris of UCLA, who will be targeting star-forming regions in the Orion nebula.
Harvey said the FORCAST camera on the telescope has large, two-dimensional array detectors that are similar to charge-coupled devices found in digital cameras. The goal is to obtain a sequence of images of the star cluster with the telescope, which will move almost imperceptibly between each image in order to sample “sub-pixels.”
One advantage of the SOFIA observatory is that scientists can make changes and improvements to the craft’s instruments between flights as well as change observing techniques, said Harvey. “These are impossible tasks for orbiting telescopes that have very fixed procedures for the instruments and observations.”
He also is working with the FORCAST team to interpret data gathered during the first science flight in order to carefully characterize SOFIA’s imaging capabilities for future users.
Harvey said he hopes to build a long-term program of specialized observations on SOFIA that eventually will involve data analysis by CU-Boulder students.
NASA hopes SOFIA will continue to fly astronomical science observations for the next two decades, with research flights expected to ramp up to two or three flights a week by 2015. SOFIA’s suite of instruments are expected to gather new information on a wide variety of astronomical targets, including black holes, distant galaxies, the formation of stars and planets, and up close views of comets and asteroids.
SOFIA is a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center. SOFIA’s science and mission operations are managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut in Stuttgart, Germany.
SOURCE: CU PRESS RELEASE
